Iron Duke Motor - Anyone out there used this motor ? I have heard there are concerns about using this motor do to primarily marine use. I was going to try and locate a Chevy II 4 banger but a lead came up on a Iron Duke Motor Any suggestions guys ? Thanks Tom
s10 duke is the best 'cause u can get 4spd 5spd and od automatic,the marine intake is good but the cam ,not so much
Do a search on here for iron duke. There are alot of build and link notes. The marine cam can be a good cheap cam and performs better than the stock. Lots of after market parts and cams. Can build good intakes and exh. The pistons are the same as a 327 chev. I raced a Monza w/ a 2.5 chev 2 /mercuiser eng. in mini-stock cl*** that did very well. The crossflow head is much better. The bigger 3.L uses the head from a 460 ford. . Lot and lots of info and builds !!! SEARCH
five or six cars around here runnin them,They seem to power the track tees ok and the guys get killer mileage,not bad since most have small gas tanks,guys are runnin PGs to 700r4s so cant go wrong one even has a set of S&S harley carbs on it....
I had a 1970 4 banger in my Willys I think last year for the 4 in Nova. Great engine I would do it all over again in a heart beat. Use the later Iron Duke plenty of speed parts right from GM including block
Tom, This may sound nuts, but I have a brand new Iron Duke short block from the early 80's that is still strapped to a pallet at my Dad's (I swear I store too much stuff at my Dads). I didn't use it in my T because I didn't have the ****** for it, or any wireing. Bob (P.S. Did you get the magazine I sent?)
If you want a cheap powertrain, stop by my shop with a truck and a bottle of Jack, and I'll help you load up this...
Here is one that I picked up this past summer at a swap meet. Algon injected, roller valvetrain, Mexican head and block, ported, etc.
Those engines were made in at least two different configurations. They are fairly light for an all iron engine. Some had balance shafts. I believe they were all 2.5L. In normal use they have a good track record. Like the earlier Chevy II engine, they were successfully used in midgets. GM even offered heavy duty parts, and a kit that allowed the engine to be laid almost on it's side for use in midgets. If you try to get a a lot of power out of one the strength and stiffness of the block is marginal. Worst case the block cracks in half near the middle. The cam has only three bearings so with really radical cams flexing of the cam is a problem. At one time GM offered a stronger race block that had 5 cam bearings. If I remember correctly GM also offered a race head for the engine. I know of one in a road race car that was stroked to 3.1L. There wasn't room for adequately sized crankshaft counterweights and even the addition of mallory metal didn't make them heavy enough. Although it made good power, as a result of the counterweight issue it was unreliable due to repeated breaking of the best high quality billet crankshafts.
The chevy II four banger was made up to at least 1970. One place to find them besides in chevy II's is in the '68 to '70 DJ-5A Postal jeep where they were mated to a powerglide. Here's a pic of the engine bay of a '70 DJ-5 I picked up recently. Just bought it for the motor.
I wasnt refering to the Chevy 4 banger as the Iron Duke although many call it that. The real Iron Duke is a Pontiac 151 4 banger. It has a cross flow head and doesnt share any parts with the Chevy. It was made from '77 to '93.
Iron duke was used in a number of cars in the 80s. The crossflow head was introduced in 79. It was used by AMC,Jeep,as well as GM in Sunbirds,Monzas,S-10s and I think Camaros in the early 80s.It was fuel injected and called a Tech IV in 82, used in front drive apps and the Fiero. I had one in an 80 Sunbird that had 150,000mi on it and still ran great. The car had 30,000mi when I bought it. The engine far outlasted the rest of the car.
The Jalopy Journal
